The present disclosure relates generally to wellbore operations and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method of forming a plug in a wellbore.
When drilling a wellbore which penetrates one or more subterranean earth formations, it is often advantageous or necessary to form a hardened plug in the wellbore. Such plugs are used for many reasons, including abandonment of the well, wellbore isolation, wellbore stability, or kick-off procedures. Typically, a cement plug may be set in a borehole by pumping a volume of cement slurry into the workstring. The cement slurry travels down the workstring and exits into the wellbore to form the plug. The cement slurry typically exits through one or more openings located at or near the end of the workstring. After placement of the cement slurry, the work string is pulled out of the cement plug.
At this point, in case of a plug verification requirement, a conventional operational method requires waiting for the cement to set, and then using the workstring to contact the hard cement plug with enough force to verify the presence of the plug, as well as the location of the top of the plug. The necessary wait time typically is substantial. For example, the operation duration of a typical job may require a cement fluid time in the range of about four (4) to six (6) hours, which may translate to a wait-on-cement (WOC) time of about twelve (12) to twenty-four (24) hours. The total time required, of course, will increase with the number of plugs involved in the job.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method for forming plugs in a wellbore that improves plug formation operations and decreases the amount of time required.